The invention relates to semiconductor manufacture and more specifically to the use of a polymer material to form features on a substrate.
Manufacture of semiconductor devices typically involves a series of processes in which various layers are deposited and patterned on a substrate to form a device of the desired type. Line and space patterns in photoresist are often created during modern semiconductor processing to form microelectronic devices. Smaller critical dimensions (xe2x80x9cCDxe2x80x9d) for both lines and spaces allow faster circuitry to be created. The sum of the width of a line plus the space CD is termed pitch. Tighter pitch and smaller CD""s are needed in each new technology node.
Tight pitch/small CD devices are presently created by patterning with shorter wavelengths and CD reduction by overetching. Spacer gates, which are formed from spacers, or thin layers formed adjacent to sidewalls of patterned features, are formed by plasma deposition of a template followed by photoresist patterning, etching, and then plasma deposition of the spacer material followed by etch and/or planarization to form the free standing spacer. However, because of the inorganic nature of the materials and the process employed, rework is not an option. Additionally, line edge roughness (xe2x80x9cLERxe2x80x9d) can be a problem in lithographic processing. Thus a need exists to create features such as lines and spacers, for example, with tighter pitch.